Hannity wrong on tax cuts

On July 27, ABC Radio host Sean Hannity, in conversation with Teamsters president James P. Hoffa, falsely claimed that "[e]very American taxpayer got back the same amount of money" as a result of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, adding that "[e]very American that pays federal income tax got their $600." In fact, the tax cuts averaged substantially less than $600 annually (pdf) for almost half of American taxpayers, with high-income taxpayers receiving many times that.

From the July 27 edition of ABC Radio Networks' nationally syndicated broadcast of The Sean Hannity Show:

HANNITY: This is propaganda. It's not true what you're saying. Every American taxpayer got back the same amount of money. ... Every American that pays federal income tax got their $600, Jim.

A June 21 report (pdf) by the Tax Policy Center ("a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution" that "provides timely, accessible analysis and facts about tax policy to policymakers, journalists, citizens, and researchers") found the following:

The average annual tax cut for people earning less than $10,000, who constitute 14.2 percent of American taxpayers, was $19.

The average annual tax cut for people earning between $10,000 and $20,000, who constitute 18.4 percent of American taxpayers, was $192.

The average annual tax cut for people earning between $20,000 and $30,000, who constitute 14.2 percent of American taxpayers, was $532.

In contrast, the report also found that people earning in excess of $1 million per year received an average tax cut of $136,398. "[T]he numbers presented above indicate that a majority of American households will be made worse off by the tax cuts," the Tax Policy Center reported, "because the tax cuts will ultimately have to be financed."

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